Sir, - I refer to your report (July 31st) of the press conference given by the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, launching the long since publicised report of the Newspaper Commission. Cutting through all the verbiage, it would appear that the Minister committed himself to nothing other than to send the report around six government departments for their comments. Should one laugh or cry, bearing in mind all that has happened and continues to happen in the industry?
On the issue currently nearest your own heart and that of Independent Newspapers, that is, the energetic marketing of British newspapers, the Minister is trapped by his acceptance of the findings of the Competition Authority in its interim report of its study on the newspaper industry. (It is worth noting that the Minister directed that the Competition Authority's report should form an input to the work of the commission, but that the commission should not repeat the work of the authority).
The Competition Authority decided that the Irish newspapers and the UK imported newspapers were in two distinct markets, and used this entirely daft notion to prove that dominance of Independent Newspapers. The Minister accepted the report of the authority and used it as a means to threaten this company and Independent Newspapers. It is only fair to say that your good selves, Opposition politicians and others, also wholeheartedly embraced the authority's report.
If, in fact, the UK newspapers are in a different market it logically follows that their activities within that market should be irrelevant to the indigenous newspapers. In fairness, the Minister accepted that there was a conflict between the authority and the commission. In fact, in this crucial aspect of the competition the two reports are incompatible and nothing can change that. One cannot believe that the legal advisers of the UK publishers (not to mention the EU Commission) will miss the obvious consequences.
The following paragraph appears in the Irish Independent report of the press conference: "Asked if there was anything in the report with which he disagreed or which he felt the commission had got wrong, the Minister said there was nothing he could point to in particular." Does this mean he is now having second thoughts about the Competition Authority report? Can it be that the chickens are coming home to roost in the department and elsewhere? - Yours, etc.,
Chairman,
Irish Press Plc.,
25 Merrion Square,
Dublin 9